Traditional reactor fuel efficiencies are limited by design. In traditional reactors, neutrons interact with the fissile material creating fission-products that cannot be transmuted. This expedites fission product buildup and causes swelling. Consequently, substantial fission product poisoning negatively affects nuclear fuel longevity and efficiency.
Compared to traditional reactors, fast reactors are more immune to fission product poisoning. The fission-products created can be further transmuted, using more fuel, more efficiently. However, more fission-products and helium gas are created due to the increased number of transmutations that occur. Additionally, the extra fission-products and fission gases cause fuel swelling because current fuel designs cannot accommodate fission product buildup within the fuel. This causes accelerated damage of the nuclear fuel and cladding due to the excessive swelling.
Therefore, there is a need for a nuclear fuel, and a process for fabricating it, that limits fuel swelling by accommodating fission-products and gases, and, as a result, facilitating higher burnup rates.